I did WHAT?!

I actually STAMPED today. Whoa....

I have always felt that you never really lose your passions in life, sometimes you just let them recede into the background while you focus on what needs your most immidiate attention. And for me, now that I have delt with what needed to be mended (i.e.... me)... it is time to stirr up the passions again.

Before you can look at what I made, I want you to join me in a little spurt of brilliance by Albert Schweitzer...

"In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit."

And now for the pretty stuff.... yup, back with Stampendous again. Cute little birthday bees this time.. ;)

Thanks for stoppin in to see me again! Long time no see!! :)

Yummy Cupcake Day!!

Happy Cupcake Day everyone! LOL. Time for another Hope Stamps Eternal Cupcake Inspiration challenge!! Yippeee!! How delish do these little cakes look?! I want to eat the rainbow one...do you think it really will taste like skittles?? ha!

Okay, My first instinct when I saw this weeks inspiration photo was to reach for my K&Co. Berry Sweet paper pad. But when I pulled it out all I could think was HOLY NEON PAPER! Seriously, that stuff is BRIGHT. I dont know what I was thinking when I bought that...LOL.

I opted instead for my new favorite paper, the Basic Grey Lemonade paper pad. I actually used three different sheets from that collection, the grungy yellowish pink solid, the red polka dotted pattern and the fun berryish floral. I really love coordinated papers like this, it totally takes out the need to spend forever digging through my stash of paper to find the most perfect stuff.



So I am going to try something a little different this week adn give you dimensions for the layers on this card! Leave me some feedback and let me know if you want me to try to continue this trend or not...

So the card base itself is a 5.5x5.5 inch square card. The first layer, the grungy yellow, is a 5.25 inch square. The Floraly layer is a 4.75 inch square. Those two layers were inked and adhered together but not to the card base yet.

Next I cut four scalloped squares using my McGill punch, its a 1.25 inch square folding just off center. With scraps from cutting my card base I cut a 1.5 inch strip of yellow cardstock. I then tore a strip slightly wider than my yellow strip, I used the same patterned paper as the scalloped squares. I slightly inked the torn edged and glued it to the back of the yellow cardstock strip.

At this point I adhered it across the center of the first two layers and wrapped the ends around the back and secured them. I then adhered my folded scalloped to all four corners with a small dab of adhesive to hold them in place while I punched holes for my cute button brads. After attatching the brads I finally secured all the layers to my card base using about 8 foam adhesive pieces. I prefer to use a LOT of these pop dots, they are cheap and I dont want my card to sag in the center.

At this point the basic structure of the card is done. Pick out your favorite stamps and decide on your focal image. I chose a cute changito image and sentiment from two different stamp sets. I also went with the tag shape, that was a stamp too. I stamped, colored, cut and blinged out my focal images and those got ribbon tails and were attatched using pop dots as well.

Thanks for stopping by for another Cupcake Inspiration Challenge!! Make sure you go check out what the other Hope Stamps Eternal Sweeties did with this inspiration cupcake!!

Bonnie ~ Carolina ~ Colleen ~ Jessica ~ Michelle ~ Natalie ~ Tammy

More of the same thing...

Oh isn't the skull and cross bananas absolutely hilarious? I dont have much to say right now....so just enjoy the card would ya?

Aargh!

So I totally lifted this card from Susystampalot! She had a phenomenal card posted, and I just had to replicate it...complete with pirates and everything! Oh and I loved it so much I flipped it for a variation of the same card...but I'm saving that for tomorrows' blog fodder...

These cutie changitos are by Stampendous, I actually found this particular set at Michaels if you can believe that one!

Oh and while we're talking about Michaels, I stopped by last night and bought a 12pk of those marvy dye based rubber stamping markers...I only got the single ended ones and now wish i'd gotten the double ended, so I'll make sure the next sets are the doube. So back to my original train of thought here...have you all used these markers? Do you like them? They run $16-$20/set depending on how many nibs you want on each pen, and have 12 to a pack. Give me your thoughts!! I am thinking of collecting them over time (with coupons of course) to tide me over until I get my copic collection filled in. I am hoping to find a local store that sells copics because i dont want to pay shipping on an already expensive marker. So anyway, Marvy Matchables stamping pens...whattaya think of 'em??

I've got blogger fodder to last all week!

I have been SUPER crafty this weekend kids. I dont know what came over me other than I have been taking Zicam like nobody's business...lol. I am spreading out my latest projects throughout the week so you'll just have to come back and see more...bwahahaha.


So I was working from this sketch, and let me tell ya, without dimensions it got a little tricky. I had to remove one of the little strips because I ran out of space...lol. But overall I did pretty darn good getting my final card as close to the sketch as I could.

On my card I used my beautiful basic grey paper pad, Offbeat, LOVE IT! And I paired it with my Changito in Space set from Stampendous. (um, is that really what the stamp set is called or is that what my brain thinks it is called?? I cannot for the life of me remember...oops!) Anyway, I also finally chopped into my Bazzill embossed cardstock, I love the dots!!

You Rocket!

First off, sorry for the darker pic this time, I'm on my hubby's laptop not my own, so I didn't have access to my photoshop to lighten the picture. But you can still see well enough, I hope.

I snagged a new set of Changito stamps last week from a seller on etsy, there were two sets but paypal could only afford one so I chose this rocket ship themed set and am very pleased with it. And I love stupid puns, like this one...LOL.

I'm {still} Bananas about You!

Dont have much time to play right now, so just a supply list for this one:

Papers: Bazzill Cardstock, K&Co Wild Saffron patterned paper, Basic Grey Patterned Paper

stamps: Stampendous

other: acrylic paint, colorbox inks, and a button.

I'm Bananas about You!

See, I told you there would be more jungle action...lol. Still loving the look of the leaves tucked around the image...there could be more of this...hehe.

So today I'm rocking out to William Fitzsimmons, he is by far my most favoritest these days. Seriously, go to the link and give it a listen. I have three of cd's now, and cant pick out any songs that I dislike. For the life of me, I cannot figure out WHY he is not mainstream yet. He's had a few songs played in tv shows, (Greys Anatomy and Army Wives that I know for sure) and it cant be long til he's getting radio play too.

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Supplies for card:

Paper: Bazzill Cardstock, Basic Grey Patterned Papers (Mellow and Romani Collections)

Stamps: Stampendous

Other: Colorbox inks, Acrylic Paint, Paper lace ribbon (K&Co)

I'm Wild About You!

No really, I am! hehehe. So today is my "free day" with no kiddos and no hubby around to bug me. Ahhhhh. I am taking full advantage of my overflowing paper stash, not to mention inking up a bunch of stamps that have been collecting dust on me. I am kind of on a "jungle" kick, so dont be surprised if the next three or four cards are much the same as this.

So now for an update on life in general: When I started back to working full time in August, our three year old completely reverted on us; She was nearly potty trained, as in sleeping in underwear and waking up dry every morning. Now she is having accidents like crazy, still refusing to poo in the toilet, sneaking diapers to use, acting afraid of the toilet. The works. We're getting tired of it. So I did some research online and found a book that hopefully will help. It's called "It Hurts to Poop" and it's written specifically for kids who are afraid to potty train for whatever reason, it's a kids book. I have read some really encouraging reviews about it, so we'll see. Because seriously, she was almost completely done with diapers, and now I feel like its back to square one. It's quite depressing, but I know it's just a stress reaction to not having mommy around every day.

And the job is going great, I'm excelling, which I knew I would...and hopefully once the economy picks up and the industry isn't hurting I will be able to get a raise and be paid what I'm worth. I think that the dental industry is one to be hit the hardest when the economy is in the crapper, who wants to shell out thousands to fix their teeth when they can barely afford gas? Not me.

That's it for now, dont want to bore you all. *wink*

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Supplies for card:
Paper: Bazzill Cardstock, Wild Saffron Patterned Paper (K&Co)
Stamps: Autumn Leaves (giraffe), Stampendous (sentiment, leaf)
Other: American Crafts Ribbon, Prisma Pencils, Odorless Paint Thinner, Glitter, Colorbox inks